User blog:GlitterInformer/Doki Doki! Pretty Cure/Glitter Force Doki Doki SDC: Episode 41 (Sub)
Episode 40 (Sub) | Table of Contents | Episode 42 (Sub) Japanese title: “Arisu’s Dream! Friends Connected by Flowers” So, the dub’s still out cold. And it’s going to be for a while, though not as long as the Blood Rings Arc. The next episode to be dubbed will be episode 43. Not only are we missing out on even more quality content, but now that Regina’s back and Makoto’s idol stuff has finally been touched on again, the only good thing the omission of these episodes does is make it so there’s less time in the dub to wait for Ira and Rikka’s relationship to continue. With that aside, I am looking forward to this episode. Usually, the victims of the week are just background characters that you don’t really care about. So on the rare occasion that we actually get to know a victim of the week, said victim is that much more memorable. I still remember Reina Itsutsuboshi/Nellie Knotty from episode 13->10 quite well, as she was a well-written antagonist with whom Arisu/Clara had an engaging rivalry. And now, Reina’s coming back! I can’t wait to see how Reina and Arisu interact once they meet each other again. The episode starts with the girls visiting Arisu at the gardening club for the first time. It turns out that Arisu has always been in the gardening club at her school because her childhood dream was to open a flower shop. Of course, the dream probably won’t come true since Arisu has to inherit her father’s business. Arisu seems resigned to this, but Mana decides that the girls should help Arisu fulfill her dream. We get the opening theme. Then, right afterwards, the girls have finished setting up a booth for Arisu to use to sell flowers. Luckily for them, there happens to be a flea market that day, so Arisu can finally put her business idea into motion, if only for this one day. Lance also wants to help her be a shopkeeper even though he has no idea what a shopkeeper is. Then, Reina comes by! Just like in episode 13->10, she’s an irritating little jerk to the girls. She says that she thought a monkey wandered into the flea market until she realized it was just Arisu and her friends. Rikka, Mana, and Makoto are annoyed, but since Aguri doesn’t know Reina yet, she asks who she is. This causes Reina to go into a dramatic introduction where she tells Aguri that she’s the beautiful rose of the Five Star Corporation, Reina Itsutsuboshi. Arisu politely asks if Reina’s participating in the flea market, too. Reina says that she’s setting out to destroy Arisu’s flower shop and shows off her giant storefront that’s selling a huge variety of flowers. Reina was already evil enough in episode 13->10, when she was battling Arisu for a golden rose and cheating all the way through. But here, she’s actively taking delight in crushing Arisu’s childhood dream. Nonetheless, Arisu is her usual calm self, and she says that she’s happy that they’re both opening flower shops together. We get the title card. Then, we cut back to the flea market. A man comes up to Arisu’s booth to buy flowers for his girlfriend. Arisu offers him some geraniums. However, Reina quickly steals Arisu’s customer, as her shop is selling beautiful, high-quality roses for 1/30 of the market price. Rikka, Makoto, and Aguri are all angry at Reina, but Arisu is just happy that Reina’s business is going well and says that she has beautiful flowers. Rather than saying thank you like a decent person, Reina just orders Arisu to praise her more. Now, I know I’m calling Reina all sorts of horrible adjectives. But that’s not to say that she’s a poorly written character or anything. Some characters are Hate Sinks who are just meant to be hated by the audience. Reina is a good example of this, and this is what makes her an entertaining antagonist. While Reina’s shop continues to be bustling, it’s hours until Arisu finally gets her first customer. Arisu recommends some cosmos to him and tells him that they make her heart feel warm whenever she looks at them. He finds her so charming that he buys the flowers. Arisu’s friends congratulate her for acting like a real shopkeeper, and Arisu is delighted. Makoto notes that flower shopkeepers sell not just flowers, but love. Mana says that if that’s true, she wants to give flowers to Regina. Then, lo and behold, Regina comes in and says she doesn’t want flowers. This is really interesting because episode 13->10, the first time Reina appeared, was also the first time Regina interacted with Pretty Cure. Regina even references that episode when she reminds the girls that she hates anything that’s more beautiful than her, which is exactly what she said in episode 13->10. Then, even though we’re only 7 minutes into the episode, we already get our victim of the week. It’s a man who’s upset that because of the flea market, he can’t fly his plane. He wishes that all of the flowers Reina is selling wilt. This causes darkness to appear in his Psyche, not that Regina needs it or anything. Regina extracts his Psyche and turns it into a Jikochuu. But before we see the Jikochuu, we cut to the flea market, where all of the flowers suddenly wilt. Mana thinks it might be a Jikochuu who did it, but oddly, Sharuru doesn’t sense one. Arisu is at first disappointed that all of her flowers are dead, but she cheers up when she sees that a single bud survived (possibly because it hasn’t flowered yet). Reina, however, is in tears because all of her flowers are gone. Arisu goes over to check on her and notices that one of her cups also has a bud. She points it out to Reina and says that they can still save at least that one plant. For the first time, both Arisu and Reina work together. They take their two buds out of the soil, wash them clean, and remove the wilted roots in order to lessen the damage done. Then, they put the plants in soil and water them. Once they’ve taken care of the buds, Reina asks why Arisu is so kind to her even though she bullies her all the time. Arisu says that it’s because back when they were little, Reina taught her how to take care of flowers better. We then get a cute little flashback to Arisu and Reina as little kids. Arisu compliments Reina’s roses and then shows that her own flowers aren’t in the best of shape, and Reina offers to teach her how to raise them better. Although Reina is pretty stuck-up as a child (saying that the roses aren’t as pretty as she is, that she cultivates roses to make herself look prettier, and that newbies like Arisu are a pain to deal with), she still seems nice at heart. Arisu says that since then, Reina has been her precious friend. Reina flashes back to episode 13->10, when she said to herself that deep down, she wanted friends, and then turns away and cries. Then, Sebastian announces that he’s figured out why all the flowers have wilted. A satellite belonging to the Yotsuba Corporation has caught footage of the Jikochuu of the day: a giant tree Jikochuu in space. It’s shooting seeds of Janergy onto the Earth, which has caused all the flowers to wilt. Plus, Regina’s standing on the Jikochuu’s branch. Sharuru realizes that they didn’t sense the Jikochuu because it was too far away. Fortunately, there is a way for Pretty Cure to get to space: or, at least, a way for one of them to get there. It turns out that even though Arisu is only 14, she knows how to pilot a plane. This plane, however, can only carry one person. So, just like in episode 33, it’ll be up to Cure Rosetta alone to fight the Jikochuu. Hopefully the fight scene this time will be just as epic as the fight scene then! Reina watches worriedly as Arisu’s plane rockets into the distance, and then we get our eyecatches. After that, we cut to space, where Arisu sets her plane on autopilot, ejects herself from the plane and transforms into Cure Rosetta. Rosetta tells Regina to stop making the flowers wilt, and Regina makes a rude face at her and tells her she won’t. Regina then says that flowers make humans happy, though she doesn’t know why that is. Rosetta says that it’s because humans see life in flowers. She shows that she brought her flower bud with her and says that even if a flower wilts until it’s just a bud, it still tries its best to live on. Rosetta offers the bud to her and invites Regina to accept her love. This moves Regina to the point that for the first time since episode 22->15, Regina’s eyes turn blue! However, it only lasts less than a second, as Regina refuses to have her worldview completely changed. She shakes herself off and her eyes glow redder than ever. The Jikochuu tries to grab Rosetta, but she dodges. Unfortunately, it then hits her with projectiles, causing her to fall back to Earth. As she plummets, she mentally apologizes to Reina and then decides that she must at least protect the cosmos bud she’s holding. Just then, Cure Heart strums the new harp they got last episode and Rosetta grows wings, stopping her fall. It turns out that Reina owns an even bigger plane that was able to carry the rest of Pretty Cure to space! This means, of course, that Reina is now in on the girls’ secret identities. Fortunately, now that Arisu’s talk with Reina has caused her not to be a jerk anymore, Reina is now determined to fight to the ends of the earth by Arisu’s side. Then… Reina admits that the whole time, she made fun of Arisu because she wanted to be her friend. This makes absolutely no sense! If you want somebody to be nice to you, why the heck would you do all you can to make their life miserable!? Reina’s an idiot. Idiotic life choices aside, Reina bursts into tears again and requests that the other four Pretty Cures take care of her friend. Regina then calls out to Heart and asks if she wants to talk. Heart, delighted, flies up to her. Unfortunately for Heart, what Regina has to say is that she absolutely hates friendship. The Jikochuu then shoots seeds at her. This time, though, Rosetta is ready, and she blocks the seeds with Rosetta Reflection. Regina then shoots a blast from the Miracle Dragon Glaive at Heart and Rosetta. Fortunately, Diamond flies Rosetta out of the beam’s path, and Sword does the same with Heart. Cure Ace then prepares her Love Kiss Rouge. But instead of performing Ace Shot, she just gives up on the magical lipstick and fights Regina physically. This results in Regina punching her away pretty easily. Ace seems to have gotten a lot weaker since episode 23->16. That time, she fought a brainwashed Regina and did a heck of a lot better. She even won the battle against her! The Jikochuu then shoots all of the soil around its roots at Pretty Cure, which knocks them over. They don’t fall thanks to their magical wings, but they have taken a serious blow. Regina then orders the Jikochuu to shoot a huge seed at the Earth that will make all of the flowers on it, as well as Pretty Cure, wilt. The Jikochuu does so. However, Rosetta does Rosetta Reflection again and blocks the seed. Ace says that Rosetta can’t keep it up for long, though, or she’ll lose her life energy. The other four don’t even try to support her, though. Nice friends they are. Regina mocks Rosetta because all she does is defense, and she never actually does anything useful. Never mind that that’s not true, though Regina wasn’t there for any of the battles where Rosetta showed off her offensive capability as well. Rosetta says that she’s perfectly fine with protecting people because people are like flowers to her, and she’ll do anything to protect them. In fact, Rosetta says that Regina is one of the people she wants to protect. Regina shoots another Glaive beam at her, but Rosetta continues to block it, even though it’s starting to be painful to her. She tells Regina that in flower language, cosmos means “a girl’s purity” and says that Regina has a pure heart. This gets to Regina again, and she stops shooting. What’s more, the cosmos (which Ai is holding) starts blooming, implying that due to Regina’s hate becoming less powerful, the Jikochuu’s effects are less powerful as well. Regina says that her heart is hurting again, and we see a spot of light start to appear in her Psyche! The giant, flower-destroying seed becomes less powerful as well, as it breaks under the pressure of Rosetta Reflection. With that taken care of, the girls finish off the Jikochuu with Royal Lovely Straight Flush. Regina teleports away, and all of the flowers on Earth return to normal. As the sun sets, Arisu and Reina exchange flowers as a sign of their friendship. Arisu then says that she has a new dream. Rather than just using her love to nurture flowers, she wants to nurture people as well. To that end, she’s determined to make the Yotsuba Corporation the greatest that it can be. Mana says that she wants to use the power of love to save Regina, and Arisu vows to support her with all her might. With that, the episode ends. Overall: I really like how the Regina arc is progressing. I was worried it would become repetitive with Pretty Cure repeatedly trying and failing to save Regina, but we do see the girls gradually making progress. Last episode, “With All My Heart” opened the door to Regina’s heart. Here, we get proof that the girls’ efforts are actually working, as a bit of the darkness in Regina’s Psyche has disappeared. It’s also nice that Reina is a parallel to Regina. Both are blonde girls who start out evil and slowly become good. If the girls can redeem Reina, I’m sure they can redeem Regina, too. After all, their names are only one letter apart. That being said, this episode was not as good as it could have been. First of all, Reina’s motivation for being such a jerk was complete garbage. It would have made sense if Reina’s parents had influenced Reina to behave so poorly towards her, but nooo. We had to have Reina acting hateful towards Arisu because she loved her. That makes her actions not just inexcusable, but downright unexplainable! Why would you bully a person you wanted to befriend? Why!? With that aside, the fight scene this episode was underwhelming, too. I wasn’t expecting a fight scene on the level of episode 33, but the animation here was a step down from the previous episodes. Not only was it slow-paced and underwhelmingly animated (for example, the soil that the Jikochuu shot near the end didn’t even seem to hit Pretty Cure and instead just floated over them on a different layer), but Ace was just inexcusably bad in this fight scene. You’re telling me that in episode 23->16, she was able to singlehandedly take on and defeat Regina, but in this episode, Regina takes her down in three seconds? The last problem of the episode is something that I’ve been sensing throughout the show: Arisu is a Mary Sue. I know that sounds harsh and hateful, but hear me out. Arisu has no character flaws. She had one in episode 4->3: her fear of physical combat. But in that episode, she got over it completely and it hasn’t come up again. In episode 13->10, she supposedly had anger issues, but this has only ever been shown in flashbacks to Arisu’s childhood. In episode 33, we see that as a child, she was timid and submissive, but she got over that well before the present day. And here, Arisu is completely morally pure. She never once snaps at Reina or Regina and always treats them with calm kindness. Arisu has no problems. Any problems she had, she got over them in episode 4->3 or before the show even began. She is completely mature and has nowhere else to go in terms of character development. There’s nothing left for her other than to explore her past, when she did have flaws. Even though Arisu does have her entertaining moments on occasion, she’s still a fundamentally poorly written character. Because of this, she’s currently my least favorite Doki Doki Cure, even below the infamous Aguri. Next episode: Aguri has her first birthday party! Category:Blog posts